Time of the Possessed

Time of the Possessed

Opened: 19 March 2011 Thalia Theater Hamburg, Germany

Running Time: 3 hrs with one interval

Demons? Devils? Evil spirits? What danger could they pose us? The development of revolutionary aggression is told through the life of Nikolai Stavrogin, the protagonist of Demons by Dostoevsky. It is winter in a strange, deserted house near New York City. Here Stavrogin confronts his own past, his ideas about a different world, and the ideas of his fellows, members of the group which he led. The men follow their goals desperately, finally putting an end to secular and religious power. Stavrogin knows their thinking precisely, since these thoughts were once his own. Nevertheless, when the leadership slips from his hands, the approaching catastrophe seems unavoidable.

From the reviews

"There is a demon waiting for all of us somewhere, says Mundruczó. Only a confluence of lucky/unlucky circumstances is needed to bring us face to face with our demons. Those who are aware of this, are aware of the most important aspect of existence. Nevertheless, they cannot profit from this knowledge, since we cannot influence, chase away, or even change demons. (…) Only one character in the The Time of the Possessed has this omniscience – the little girl who possesses demonic powers. Bustling about the characters, she is the embodied warning, the knowledge and apperception – not to mention, the realization – of the demon living in others. This miraculous creature was conceived and born in exposure. She was already talking as a three-month-old, never cried or laughed. She does not belong to anyone and belongs to everyone at the same time. After the death of her mother, her father brought her here, to the end of the world. But she was and has remained a stranger to him, and for everyone else, for all human souls, like the heroes of our story.
Is it a do-gooder utopia, a denial of everything, or terror for its own sake that principly motivates the heroes on Kornél Mundruczó’s stage? For them, Dostoevsky is rather an inspiration. The names, just like the Russian milieu of the community, are derived from Dostoevsky; however, everything built upon this basis is a contemporary tragedy, together with the built-in anachronistic tension of particular references to Dostoevsky. Naturally, the plot has a much broader meaning, beyond merely referring to the terror attacks of the last decades which caused shock, incomprehension, and fear all over the world. At first, what occurs to everyone is the attack against the Twin Towers in New York City – historically referred to as 9/11 – but the creators obviously intended a much broader meaning for the act of terrorism taking shape onstage in front of us." (Karsai György - szinhaz.net)